


Haunted

by ramblebrambleamble



Series: Tumblr shorts [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Haunted House, Mystery, POV First Person, Short One Shot, ghost - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23695924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramblebrambleamble/pseuds/ramblebrambleamble
Summary: I seem to live alone. It doesn't feel like it.
Series: Tumblr shorts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1747021





	Haunted

I found a round ringstone in the riverbed, the centre hollowed out by the waters that used to flow. It was gold. Amber-gold.

I looked through the hole and the world turned strange. Wavy, hazy, layered with colour, all soft edges and hard curves. I swayed on my feet and took the stone from my eye. The world righted itself.

I looked at the gold-gleaming stone, and closed my fist around it- only, it was too big, too round, too gold, to hide safely in my hand. I emptied one of my pockets and slipped the stone inside. It fit. Just.

The sun started to set and I started back towards the house, leaping from boulder to boulder in a game I liked to play with myself. Only I know the rules. When you're the only one that knows the rules, you can never lose.

The sun set, and my foot slipped. But that was okay. I only fell a little bit.

The world was getting dark, and the stars were beginning to peek out. I skipped along the old dust path to the front door and knocked three times, and then twice more. Rat-tat-tat. Rat-tat. And the door opened by itself.

The walls of the house are lined with jars full of spirit that glow in the dark, all the colours of the rainbow. Sometimes they sing too, sweetly. Loudly. It made it hard to sleep.

Tonight was a singing night. I would have to wear earmuffs to bed.

There were good smells coming from the kitchen but first I had to wash my hands, in the bathroom where the spirit jars are all sad and blue. I swapped some of them with other colours once, just for a change, but they all went dark and screamed until I swapped them back. I don't know why.

I washed my hands, and the gold ringstone, which I balanced on the towel rack to dry.

There was no one in the kitchen but there was a pot of something rich and steaming on the stove. I don't know what it was. But it tasted good, always, and there would be enough to have some for breakfast. At breakfast time, there would be something cold on the counter for me to take with me for lunch.

I have to leave the house every day, or it will get angry and the jars will scream. I don't know why. I've peered through the windows and listened to the walls and walked all around outside it to see what I could see, but there was always nothing to see and the house was always silent. I seem to live alone. It doesn't feel like it.I have to leave the house every day, and I can't go inside the house while the sun is up. Those are the rules of the house. I didn't make them. I don't know who did.

That night, I thought that I would find out. 


End file.
